Month: August 2014

Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) presents STEVEN OSBORNE in RECITAL at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. 23 August. The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) presented a one-off concert by Steven Osborne, playing the Olivier Messiaen 1944 composition for piano, VINGT REGARDS SUR L’ENFANT-JESUS. This concert is the first real highlight of my performance year in 2014 – and, yikes, it is already the end of August! Fingers crossed for the rest of our calendar, eh? My acquaintance with the work of Olivier Messiaen is, relatively, limited. I have heard some of his work – don’t ask me what ! My little…

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (ACO) in association with Bell Shakespeare presents INTIMATE LETTERS at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. 24 August, Sydney Opera House, 26 – 30th August at City Recital Hall, Angel Place. The Australian Chamber orchestra (ACO) with Bell Shakespeare presented a program of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bedrich Smetana, and Leos Janacek, accompanied by the reading of some letters from the composers, which contextualised the writing of the compositions. The orchestra lead by Guest Director and Violin, Gordan Nikolic. Sixteen year old Mozart composed Divertimento in F major, K. 138 (1772). Composed, for four separate string…

Photo by Bob Seary New Theatre present WOLF LULLABY by Hilary Bell at the New Theatre, Newtown. 19th August – 13th September. WOLF LULLABY was written by Australian writer, Hilary Bell in 1996. The play deals with the unheard cries of a little child, Lizzie Gael, living in the country regions of Tasmania. A neglected child, from a broken relationship, ‘act-outs’ her emotional unsettledness, with some behavioural transgressions, misread or ignored, by the authorities, which, ultimately, culminates in the murder of a young child. Ms Bell, charts in a collection of scenes these events, and the consequences, aftermath, for the…

Photography by Jeff Busby Performance Space and Mobile States present Chunky Move’s KEEP EVERYTHING at Carriageworks, Redfern, Sydney. 13 August – 16 August. Chunky Move is a Melbourne based contemporary dance company lead by Anouk van Dijk. KEEP EVERYTHING was part of the 2013 Next Move commission, and is a new work by Director and Choreographer, Antony Hamilton. The program notes tells us that: this work has been developed intuitively with little editing and the result is a stream of consciousness style of dance which shows that, sometimes, it’s important to keep everything. Or, arguably, not. Three dancers, Benjamin Hancock,…

Photo by Gez Xavier Mansfield Darlinghurst Theatre Company presents CONSTELLATIONS by Nick Payne at the Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst. 8 August – 7 September. CONSTELLATIONS by Nick Payne, directed by Anthony Skuse at the Eternity Playhouse, is just the kind of play and production that we have been awaiting to happen in this new space, after an inaugural season of repeats and unsatisfactory productions. A new work. A challenging work. A well written, well directed and well acted evening in the theatre. The Play is the Thing, I always say. And, firstly, CONSTELLATIONS is an astonishing PLAY. It concerns the meeting of…

Photo by Katy Green Loughrey subtlenuance in association with Sydney Independent Theatre Company presents JOAN, AGAIN at the Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. 5 – 23 August. JOAN, AGAIN is a new Australian work by Paul Gilchrist. Joan of Arc, a village girl from the Vosges, was born about 1412; she convinced the French hierarchy, at the age of 16, to permit her to lead an army against the English invaders; she defeated the English at Orleans; she arranged the crowning of King Charles the Seventh, in the Cathedral at Rheims, heralding (in hindsight) the uniting of the French as a…